CROCODILIANS, LIZARD}?, AND SNAKES. 1087 



its fK'ular plates, having tliem 2-2, 2-o, 1-3, or 2-4, 2-3 being apparently 

 the most common arrangement. The food of both these species is the 

 Bana montezuma' Baird, and another species allied to U. halecina. The 

 life of this lake is in other directions exceedingly prolific, especially in 

 fishes and in minute Crustacea. 



I am indebted to my excellent friend. Dr. .lulhis Flolir, of the city 

 of Mexico, for a canoe excursion on the lake Xocliimiico, Avlii(^h is 17 

 miles from the city, in the valley of Mexico. Here I had an opportunity 

 of seeing the botany and zoology of the very irregular shores, which 

 are so curiously constructed by the art of the natives. The shores are 

 indented in the form of long, narrow docks, and extended in the form 

 of piers into the waters of the lake. The ends of these piers are some- 

 times more or less detached below, so as to be readily moved, from 

 which the later statements regarding the tloating islands have origi- 

 nated. The piers are planted with crops of vegetables or flowers, which 

 are sold in the adjacent city. 



The ends and shores of the piers are the resting place of innumera- 

 ble water snakes, which can be readily observed from a canoe. The 

 wife of our Indian boatman was i^articularly acute in detecting these 

 animals before either my friend or myself could see them. We caught 

 a considerable number, and found that they belong to the two species 

 above named. The habits of the two differ somewhat. The U. macro- 

 stemma is the more active, sooner seeking the water, where it swims, 

 keeping close to the shore, and remaining more or less in sight until it 

 conceals itself in a hole. The U. melanogaster, on the other hand, lies 

 quietly so as to be more easily taken in the hand; but, if it once takes 

 to the water, it seeks the depths and is no more seen. It is much less 

 disposed to bite than the E. macrostemma; the latter being, like its ally, 

 the E. sirtalifi, a very i)ugnacious snake. 



EUTiENIA MULTIMACULATA Cope. 



Entania mullhnacnlatd Coi'i;, Pioc. Anier. riiil. Soc, ISS."), p. 2St; I'roc. U. S. Xat. 



Mus., XIV, 1892, p. 665. 

 Atomarchus miilthnacidatus Coi'k, American Naturalist, 18S3, p. IHOO. 

 Tropidonotns viultimacnlatus Boulengek, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mns., I, ISiW, p. 214. 



Teeth isodont. Scales in twenty-one rows, all keeled excepting the 

 inferior one. Superior labials eight, all low and rather long, tlie orbit 

 bounded by the fourth, and cut off from tlie lifth by tlie inferior post- 

 ocular. Loreal low, nuich longer than high. Preoculars two, both 

 subquadrate, the superior the larger, the inferior resting on the fourth 

 superior labial. Postoculars three, the median the smallest (the ai)ex 

 of the inferior cut off to form a fourth on one side). Temporals 1-3, 

 the anterior large, bounding the sixth and seventh labials above. Ros- 

 tral not prominent, wider tlian deep, truncate above. Internasals 

 longer than wide, rarely separated in front, and from the rostral by a 

 pentagonal azygous plate. Frontal narrow with concave sides, the ante- 



